Lse Middle East Centre Podcasts

This event was the launch of the paper 'Art and Activism in Iraqi Kurdistan: Feminist Fault Lines, Body Politics and the Struggle for Space' by Dr Isabel Käser and Houzan Mahmoud. This paper is the outcome of a project run under the LSE Middle East Centre's Academic Collaboration with Arab Universities Programme. Meet the speakers: Isabel Käser is a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Bern. She gained her PhD at SOAS, University of London, and is the author of 'The Kurdish Women’s Freedom Movement: Gender, Body Politics and Militant Femininities' (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Houzan Mahmoud is a Kurdish feminist writer, public lecturer, activist and the editor of 'Kurdish Women’s Stories' (Pluto Press, 2021). For over 25 years, she has been an advocate for women’s rights in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. She holds an MA in Gender Studies from SOAS, and is the co-founder of the Culture Project, a platform dedic

This event was a discussion around Dr Nora Derbal's latest book 'Charity in Saudi Arabia: Civil Society under Authoritarianism' published by Cambridge University Press. In this study of everyday charity practices in Jeddah, Nora Derbal employs a 'bottom-up' approach to challenge dominant narratives about state-society relations in Saudi Arabia. Exploring charity organizations in Jeddah, this book both offers an ethnography of associational life and counters Riyadh-centric studies which focus on oil, the royal family, and the religious establishment. It closely follows those who work on the ground to provide charity to the local poor and needy, documenting their achievements, struggles and daily negotiations. The lens of charity offers rare insights into the religiosity of ordinary Saudis, showing that Islam offers Saudi activists a language, a moral frame, and a worldly guide to confronting inequality. With a view to the many forms of local community activism in Saudi Arabia, this book examines perspectives

This event was the launch of Jamie Allinson's latest book The Age of Counter-Revolution: States and Revolutions in the Middle East published by Cambridge University Press. The 'Arab Spring' has come to symbolise defeated hopes for democracy and social justice in the Middle East. In this book, Allinson demonstrates how these defeats were far from inevitable. Rather than conceptualising the 'Arab Spring' as a series of failed revolutions, Allinson argues it is better understood as a series of successful counter-revolutions. Placing the fate of the Arab uprisings in a global context, Allinson reveals how counter-revolutions rely on popular support and cross borders to forge international alliances. By connecting the Arab uprisings to the decade of global protest that followed them, Allinson's work demonstrates how new forms of counter-revolution have rendered it near impossible to implement political change without first enacting fundamental social transformation. Jamie Allinson is senior lecturer in Politics

In order to survive in a hostile environment in the Middle East, Israeli decision makers developed a regional foreign policy designed to find ways to approach states, leaders and minorities willing to cooperate with it against mutual regional challenges. Examples include the Periphery Alliance with Iran and Turkey until 1979, cooperation with the Kurds, the Maronites in Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, South Sudan and more. Contacts with these potential partners were mostly covert. The aim of this lecture, which is part of a Podeh's new comprehensive book on Israel’s secret relations with its neighbours during the years 1948-2022 is two-fold: first, to offer a theoretical framework explaining the way Israel conducted its covert diplomacy; and second, to focus on several less-known episodes of such clandestine activity, such as Israel’s ties with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf more broadly. Elie Podeh is the Bamberger and Fuld Professor in the History of the Muslim Peoples in the Department of Islamic and Middle East St

Professor Martin van Bruinessen delivered a keynote lecture on the history and development of Kurdish Studies as part of a series of activities surrounding the LSE Middle East Centre's inaugural Kurdish Studies Conference on 24-25 April, 2023. The first attempts at institutionalising Kurdish Studies in European academia emerged as a result of the First World War and the British and French mandates in Iraq and Syria when there was a demand for hands-on knowledge of the Kurds. Anthropological studies of Kurdish society then began around the mid-twentieth century, with the emergence of a strong Kurdish national movement from the 1960s onwards stimulating journalist as well as academic interest in Kurdish politics. The growth and mobilization of a Kurdish diaspora, noticeable since the 1990s, has also contributed significantly to the development of Kurdish Studies with political changes in their countries of origin also having a major impact. Professor van Bruinessen assessed the trajectory and most significant

Life in Abu Dhabi is centred around cars. Its urban development and open space infrastructure has impacted the walkability of the city, increasing residents' reliance on cars for mobility. This pattern of development is embedded in a social and spatial practice of not only urban life, but also urban governance and planning. This seminar explores some of the dimensions that have impacted and are emerging from a car infrastructure-led expansion in Abu Dhabi. How did historical decisions lead to car-centric development? How has the road network affected the city and its residents? What is the impact of car-centric development? This seminar is part of the Abu Dhabi (Dis)connected exhibition that was on display at the LSE in February-March 2023. Recorded on 10 March 2023. ________________________________________________________________ Alexandra Gomes is Research Fellow with LSE Cities where she is responsible for coordinating the Centre’s socio-spatial analysis across a range of projects. Her research focu

This event opened the exhibition 'Ruptured Domesticity: Mapping Spaces of Refuge in Iraq' by Dr Sana Murrani, hosted at LSE until 12 May 2023. Using photographs, illustrative maps and drawings, Murrani examines the domestic and intimate spaces of refuge created by Iraqis in preparation for, and in response to, wartime and violence. This work is funded by the British Institute for the Study of Iraq. Murrani was joined by Ammar Azzouz and Dena Qaddumi in a broad-ranging discussion on the exhibition and her forthcoming book 'Rupturing architecture: spatial practices of refuge in response to war and violence in Iraq' (Bloomsbury, 2024). Sana Murrani is an Associate Professor in Spatial Practice at the University of Plymouth. She studied architecture at Baghdad University School of Architecture at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Sana completed her PhD in the UK. Sana’s main research falls within the fields of architecture, human geography and urban studies in particular, the imaginative negotiations

What is the relationship between archiving and collective visions for liberation? Where does the practice of archiving fit within contemporary subaltern struggles? This conversation, co-curated between historian Leyla Dakhli, Yasmine Kherfi (LSE Middle East Centre), and Mai Taha (LSE Human Rights), builds on the work of Dakhli, who joined us to reflect on archival projects from the Middle East and North Africa, with a focus on those that emerged in the 2000s in Syria, Algeria and Lebanon. By exploring archival traces of imagined futures and the aesthetic forms they assume, Dakhli's work seeks to understand how archiving practices can be understood as gestures of a continued revolt. Leyla Dakhli is a full-time researcher in Modern History at the French Center for National Research (CNRS), and member of the Center of social history of Contemporary Worlds (CHS). Her work deals with the study of Arab intellectuals and social history of the South Mediterranean region, with a particular focus on the history of wom

How does the political and cultural shape the linguistic? How does power seep into terminology? What vocabulary is left for a people facing accumulated traumas caused by authoritarian brutality and imperial interventions recently compounded by natural disasters? This panel focuses on Syria to explore these questions about conducting cultural studies in times of disaster. It brings together the editor of and contributors to the recent special issue in the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication “Keywords in Contemporary Syrian Media, Culture and Politics.” The panellists will address the place of keywords in their scholarly research and engagement. Emma Aubin-Boltanski is a social anthropologist and an Arabist. She is one of the principal investigators of the research programme SHAKK (From revolt to War in Syria: Conflict, displacements, uncertainties), funded by the ANR (2018-2022) where she coordinates the project of a lexicon of the revolution and the war in Syria: https://syria-lexicon.pubpub.or

This panel, co-organised with Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), focused on the role that representations of femininities, masculinities, and sexualities in media and cultural productions play in maintaining or challenging stereotypes, and the gendered norms and regimes that these give rise to. Drawing on feminist approaches to media and cultural studies, speakers will discuss how different media forms, ranging from traditional print to film, advertising, and digital media have shaped gendered discourses and, relatedly, feminist thinking and praxes in the Middle East. Dalia Said Mostafa is Associate Professor on the Women, Society & Development Programme, Hamad Bin Khalifa University. On this panel she will discuss 'Women's Formidable Role and Influence in the Making of Arab Cinema'. Polly Withers is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. On this panel she will discuss 'Problematising feminist media studies from the Middle East: Gendering media in Palestine'. Amal Al-Malki is th

This event was the launch of Spyros A. Sofos' latest book 'Turkish Politics and ‘The People’: Mass Mobilisation and Populism' published by Edinburgh University Press. By analysing Turkish political culture and institutional architecture through archival research and a critical rereading of the historiography of the Turkish state and society, Sofos proposes key conceptual tools to study popular and populist politics and applies them to the Turkish case. Drawing on a diverse body of scholarship including sociology, cultural studies, psychosocial studies, political science and political theory, Turkish Politics and 'The People' explores the transformations of the notion of ‘the people’ from the late Ottoman to current Turkish political discourses. Spyros A. Sofos is a political scientist based at the London School of Economics Middle East Centre and is founder and lead editor of openDemocracy’s #rethinkingpopulism. His other books include Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe (1996, Routledge), Tormente

This panel, co-organised with Hamad Bin Khalifa University, was the launch of 'Tunisia's Economic Development: Why Better than Most of the Middle East but not East Asia' co-authored by Mustapha K. Nabil and Jeffrey B. Nugent. Recently published as part of the Routledge Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa Series edited by Hassan Hakimian, 'Tunisia's Economic Development' provides useful insights into the factors that have enabled Tunisia's initial economic success, and suggests opportunities for improving the management of economic development in the country, drawing wider lessons for the MENA region. Find out more here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-centre/events/2023/tunisia-economic-development. Mustapha K. Nabli has been Professor of Economics at the University of Tunis, Chairman of the Tunis Stock Exchange, Minister of Planning, Regional and Economic Development in the Government of Tunisia, Chief Economist and Director of the Social and Economic Development Department for the Mi

This panel, co-organised with the Society for Algerian Studies, explored the relationship between sports and society in the Maghreb. Panellists from across academia and the media discussed the historical development of sport in the region, as well as the relationship between gender and sport. With Morocco and Tunisia qualifying for the 2022 Men's World Cup, and Morocco qualifying for the 2023 Women's World Cup, panellists also charted the contemporary development of football in the region, and how the societies of the Maghreb understand their politics and identities through the sport. Mahfoud Amara is Associate Professor in Sport Social sciences and Management at Qatar University. Amara has published on sport, business, culture, politics and society in the Arab region. In 2012, he published a book with Palgrave Macmillan titled Sport Politics and Society in the Arab World. Maher Mezahi is an independent football journalist based between Marseille and Algiers. He examines the relationship between sport and

This event was the launch of 'The Untold Story of the Golan Heights: Occupation, Colonization and Jawlani Resistance' edited by Muna Dajani, Munir Fakher Eldin and Michael Mason. This landmark volume is the first academic study in English of Arab politics and culture in the occupied Golan Heights. It focuses on an indigenous community, known as the Jawlanis, and their experience of everyday colonisation and resistance to settler colonisation. Chapters cover how governance is carried out in the Golan, from Israel's use of the education system and collective memory, to its development of large-scale wind turbines which are now a symbol of Israeli encroachment. Muna Dajani holds a PhD from the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics (LSE). Her research focuses on documenting water struggles in agricultural communities under settler colonialism. Munir Fakher Eldin is Associate Professor in Philosophy and Cultural Studies, and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Birzeit University,

This panel, co-organised with the Department of Gender Studies and the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa at LSE, combined reflections from Ethiopia and Iran to query the legacies of revolutionary politics in our present, with particular focus on the current protests in Iran. Arash Davari is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. His writings have appeared in Political Theory, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and Radical Philosophy, among other venues. His first book manuscript reappraises debates in political theory about self-determination, revolution, and the extraordinary through reconstruction of the discursive conditions that made the 1979 revolution in Iran possible. Elleni Centime Zeleke is Assistant Professor of African Studies in the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University. Zeleke is the author of Ethiopia in Theory: Revolution and Knowledge Production, 1964–2

This event was the launch of Tilde Rosmer's latest book 'The Islamic Movement in Israel' published by University of Texas Press. Since its establishment in the late 1970s, Israel’s Islamic Movement has grown from a small religious revivalist organization focused on strengthening the faith of Muslim Palestinian citizens of Israel to a countrywide sociopolitical movement with representation in the Israeli legislature. But how did it get here? How does it differ from other Islamic movements in the region? And why does its membership continue to grow? Tilde Rosmer examines these issues in The Islamic Movement in Israel as she tells the story of the movement, its identity, and its activities. Using interviews with movement leaders and activists, their documents, and media reports from Israel and beyond, she traces the movement’s history from its early days to its 1996 split over the issue of its relationship to the state. She then explores how the two factions have functioned since, revealing that while leaders

Students at all levels and institutions were invited to this careers panel where practitioners in various Middle East-related fields will talk through their career paths. Reza Afshar is the Executive Director of Independent Diplomat, a non-profit non-governmental organisation founded in 2004 by British former diplomat Carne Ross to give advice and assistance in diplomatic strategy and technique to governments and political groups. Previously, Reza was head of the team responsible for Syria policy at the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). During his time at the FCO, Reza also served as head of the Middle East, Asia and Europe Team at the UK Mission to the United Nations (2009 to 2012). He was awarded an OBE in 2012 for his work as lead negotiator on Libya in the UN Security Council. During his 13 years of service, Reza also worked on Iraq (2003-2004), Zimbabwe (leading the UK Foreign Office’s crisis team in 2008), and negotiated new arms control protocols relating to cluster munitions and landmines.

This event, as part of the LSE Middle East Centre's Kurdish Studies Series, was the launch of Francis O'Connor's latest book 'Understanding Insurgency: Popular Support for the PKK in Turkey' published by Cambridge University Press. No insurgent movement can survive without some degree of popular support, but what does it mean to support an armed group? Focusing on the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), which has come to global attention in recent years for its efforts in resisting ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but has been present and active in the region for much longer, Francis O'Connor explores the first three decades of the PKK's insurgency in Turkey. Looking at how the relationship between armed groups and their supporters should be conceptually understood, how this relationship varies spatially and what role violence has in their relationship, O'Connor draws on Civil War, Social Movements and Rebel Governance literatures to outline how the PKK survived a military coup in 1980 and slowly won popular support thr

In this event, Makan, a Palestinian-led education organisation that strengthens voices for Palestinian rights, launched their curated online course, 'Understanding Palestine'. The launch included a discussion with the head of Inclusive Education at the LSE Eden Centre for Educational Enhancement, Akile Ahmet.

This keynote lecture took place at the Gramsci in the Middle East & North Africa Conference organised by the LSE Middle East Centre in cooperation with Ghent University. The conference explored, through empirically-grounded research, how Gramsci’s work can help us make sense of our contemporary moment in the region marked by a significant expansion in resistance and uprising. Sunaina Maira is Professor of Asian American Studies, and is affiliated with the Middle East/South Asia Studies program and with the Cultural Studies Graduate Group at the University of California, Davis. Her research and teaching focus on Asian, Arab, and Muslim American youth culture, migrant rights and refugee organizing, and transnational movements challenging militarization, imperialism, and settler colonialism John Chalcraft is Professor of Middle East History and Politics in the Department of Government at the LSE. He graduated with a starred first in history (M.A. Hons) from Gonville and Caius college Cambridge in 1992. He then